VSL3 side effects?

I was on it and had no side effects at all. Hope it works well for you!

Michele,
I dealt with pouchitis for a very long time after takedown and was antibiotics for the better of two years. I have taken v3 ds all this time have no side effects. You may be a bit gassy at first as your body adjusts. Hope it helps.

I take VSL#3 DS daily with no side effects.

I get very bad gas and cramping on it. Gas is so bad when I drain my pouch my stool is all gassy foam.

A guy on here donated a bunch of VSL since he was having issues and I gave it to a friend who was having pouchitis issues and couldn't afford it.

thank you guys for your input. just hoping that this probiotic will be the one to help me avoid long-term antibiotic use.

I take the maximum dose with no side effects. I credit it with keeping me off of antibiotics for a couple of years, but ultimately I still needed to go on (and stay on) antibiotics.

I've taken it for over 2 years, since my take down, and have not had pouchitis or side effects.

My husband takes it with no side effects..

I have been taking 1 capsule daily for one week of the VSL#3 and I am experiencing very sharp cramping pains (these are of the order of pre-surgical cramping) and my stool is very loose.

It seems like the VSL#3 has created some negative symptoms that has substituted my pouchitis- because my typical pouchitis symptoms have gone (which is great). The new symptoms are no good substitute and are even worse.

Does anyone have an opinion about pushing through? Has someone experienced something similar and it got better over a short time? Should I start slower with one capsule every other day, etc. Thanks guys. I can't stay like this much longer.

If you are taking the capsules, it already is a very low dose. But, yeah, dialing back to every other day for a week or so makes sense. Changing the gut flora should occur gradually. They say that over time, your body adjusts and the gas cramps resolve.

I haven't taken VSL#3, but found this to be true with other probiotics.

Jan

It was my GI who started me on the VSL3 but when I recently went to see my surgeon with symptoms (again) of what seems like pouchitis he talked about increasing my dosage. I'll be back on cipro for a bit but when things improve he wants me to go from 1/day to 4. Seemed like a big jump to me? When I explained that 4/day would bring me up to about $120 a month he joked that it would be cheaper to keep me on antibiotics. In the meantime he's submitting a form to insurance to see if they will consider covering the VSL3 or the DS, but we'll have to wait and see I guess. I'm not excited about cycling through antibiotics all of the time but definitely not excited about $120 a month either...

$120 is cheap for a months of 4 packets of DS. The cost for 40 packets of DS is around $180 for me until we meet our high deductible. I take one a day so that's 40 days worth. The directions say 1/2 to 4 packets per day. If you are talking about 4 packet of the regular strength it would be 2 packets of the double strength that is the only one you can get through prescription. I hope it works for you! It is better than taking antibiotics.

i actually take the pills--is one packet equal to one capsule? i know $120 isn't the end of the world but it's an added expense that I would like to avoid if possible...THANK YOU everyone for your input, Michelle

Roughly,
4 capsules are equal to one regular VSL#3 packet.

8 capsules are equal to one VSL#3-DS packet.

Capsules have 112.5 billion bacteria.
Regular packets have 450 billuon bacteria.
DS packets have 900 billion bacteria.

Jan